Conventionally, pallets are made from wooden boards or planks. The pallets are constructed by spacing apart a plurality of wooden rails and then nailing, perpendicular to the rails, spaced wooden slats to the top and bottom surfaces of the rails. Objects or boxes may then be stacked atop the top surface of the pallet. The pallet, with its load, may then be easily lifted and moved by a fork lift.
A plastic wrapping sheet of stretch film is often used to secure the stacked objects relative to the pallet. A first end of the wrapping sheet is typically tied about the end of a slat adjacent a rail and wrapped in a spiral manner about the pallet and stacked objects, thereby maintaining the stacked objects in relation to the pallet. The wrapping sheet is often 11/2 to 3 feet in height and is stretched tightly to cling against the pallet and stacked objects. The free end of the wrapping sheet is simply pressed into clinging frictional engagement against a previous spiral turn of the wrapping sheet to secure the untied end.
Alternatively, the stacked objects or boxes may be banded or strapped to the wooden pallet. A band is run around the rails or slats and over the load. The band is then pulled tight and the free ends of the band are clipped to another portion of the band by metal or plastic clips to maintain tension in the band.
These conventional wooden pallets and fastening techniques have numerous shortcomings. First, the pallets are generally not recyclable. Once the useful life of the pallets has been exhausted, the pallets are generally thrown away. If the pallets are not disassembled with their nails being removed and recycled, the nail may rust and become a hazard. The wooden rails and slats are often placed in landfills, thereby adding to the size of already overburdened landfills.
Second, the wooden pallets are unsanitary. The wooden pallets may rot and also serve to host insects and rodents. If the wooden pallets become dirty or contaminated, the wooden pallets are difficult to clean.
Third, the wooden pallets may splinter and cause harm to workers using the wooden pallets. Fourth, the wooden pallets are relative heavy which may result in difficulty in handling, back problems for users, and associated loss of the user's time from work.
Fifth, the wooden pallets are not adapted for compatible use with wrapping sheets of stretch film or with bands. The smooth edges of the wooden pallets do not allow the ends of the wrapping sheets to be quickly and easily attached to the wooden pallets. Rather, the ends of the wrapping sheets must be tied about the wooden pallets. This is time consuming both in terms of attachment and detachment. Also, the spirally wrapped wrapping sheets have a tendency to creep up the sides of the wooden pallets and loosen about a load secured upon the wooden pallet. Further, metal or plastic clips used to fasten the bands, often require separate tools to effect the fastening of the clips to the bands. Finally, the scrapping of the clips also presents disposal problems.
Pallets have previously been made from plastic. However, these pallets are generally unitarily molded or else, are not readily assembled at a work site. Therefore, when the pallets are unloaded and are being transported, these pallets take up a significant amount of space. Further, if a small portion of one of these pallets is damaged, generally, the entire pallet must be discarded as the repair of unitary or assembled plastic pallets is difficult.
The present invention has been developed to remedy many of the aforementioned shortcomings.